Clearing Skies
by AGENT Kuma-chan
Summary: Their story, from start to finish. It isn't easy to save the world. There is never enough time to do everything and questions are left unanswered. 5. He knows her, just like he knows the church, but he doesn't understand how. Cloud, Aerith.
1. Paths Taken

**Title:** Paths taken

**Characters:** Cloud, Tifa

**Setting:** This takes place during the beginning of the game, right after Cloud collapses on when they are going to set up the bomb and he has the flashback of Tifa's father dying.

**Warnings:** I'm not sure if Cloud, at the very least, is in character for some of these stories. This is what comes after seeing Advent Children, reading the Wiki page, reading fanfiction, and finally seeing a little Crisis Core before looking at the actual original game.

I should have started with the game first, in retrospect.

**Excerpt**: _She walks ahead of him and he thinks he can see the path of anger and hatred that lead her here._

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Cloud wakes up to see her worried face hovering over his. She's older now, with trials of the battle and loss etching their marks on her.

(He can see it in the careful way she moves, in the quick steps she ran to him, the fragile strength in her voice and the darting of her eyes.)

"…Tifa," he mutters, not quite sure what he wants to ask. Maybe it is what happened that time, when her tears paved trails across her face and her fists trembled with rage. Maybe he wants to ask how she ended up like this, what had happened to that carefree girl he used to know.

"Hmm?" She replies, curious but looking around for enemies all the same. He's reminded of where they are (of who she is) and shakes his head.

"Nothing."

She walks ahead of him and he thinks he can see the path of anger and hatred that lead her here.

He only wonders if she still walks it.

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	2. Words

**Title:** Words

**Characters:** Cloud, Tifa, Barret

**Setting:** During the conversation between the three just before Cloud falls into Aerith's church.

**A/N:** As you can tell, this collection marks my progress in the game. Or my progress in watching the walk-through of the game. Eventually, I think I'll start writing actual stories instead of character shots.

And bah, I'm not very happy with this right now.

**Excerpt**: _He has been slipping through her fingers ever since she'd met him._

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"I have so much I want to tell you." Tifa watches him worriedly. She's only just found him again, she can't lose him like this, not yet. Not now.

She carefully teeters on the edge of the bridge. If she could, she'd snatch his arm, the cuffs of his shirt, anything that would keep him from falling down that precipice.

Though, that probably wouldn't be enough. He's been slipping through her fingers ever since she's met him.

(She knows that she'll try to grab him anyway, that this part of her that wants to save the last piece of her home won't let her not, and she shifts her stance a little.)

-x-

"I know." Cloud expected her words, for some reason. It was the way she had looked at him recently, those unworded questions in her eyes, in the puffs of air she breathed out. They waited to be formed and she seemed to be hesitant to start.

He isn't entirely sure if he wants to know or why he's concerned over her safety. Perhaps it is because she's a female, someone who needs to be protected. He remembers that promise made on a starry night and thinks maybe this is his way of saving her.

He asks for Barret to keep Tifa safe and wonders if he is doing this out of guilt or the memory of a childhood crush.

(Those feelings he recalls were real enough back then and if he tries, he can bring them back with him, have them colour his words and thoughts. After a while, they slip easily into place, a key in a lock, and he isn't sure if he's acting anymore.)

-x-

Barret watches the scene. "…Alright. Sorry about this." He still cannot find it in him to like the young man, still sees him as the group he used to represent. But he might die helping AVALANCHE, and for that Barret will fulfill this request.

It follows his own anyways, keeping this girl that means the world to his daughter safe.

And when Cloud falls and Tifa lunges after him, he holds her back. She'll be a little angry at him, thinking she might have saved her friend. She'll be a little sad too, thinking of this as another personal loss.

He still keeps her locked up in her arms, away from the crumbling edge.

She is something they all want to keep safe.

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	3. Memory

**Title:** Memory

**Characters:** Cloud, mentions of Zack

**Setting:** When Cloud crashes into Aerith's church

**A/N:** The next few ones are more or less on this scene, or at least everything before Cloud visits Aerith's mom. I haven't been quite as inspired by the game after that to write yet, but we'll see...

**Summary**: _Memory is a funny thing, as Cloud soon realizes._

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There is a voice in his head, quiet and loud, and he should be more worried about this. Instead, he gives a sigh of relief, his muscles relax, and there is no worry if he's dead or alive.

How odd.

Before he can think of it more, the voice continues. It sounds familiar but Cloud doesn't recognize the voice fully. Instead, it just tickles his memory, a ripple in a pond, and before he can see the reflection it disappears. It remains in the far reaches of his mind, a corner that should be dusted but probably never will.

He used to know it, he thinks, but so long ago that he cannot recall why or how.

(Feelings are never enough to understand, even when is urging him to try harder, to search harder. _This is __**important.**_)

The voice teases him, one of those inside jokes that only friends understand. A reference—if those scrapped knees meant anything, he has already forgotten.

(—what else has he forgotten then?)

Irritation runs through him, still not knowing the voice that tries to guide him back to wakefulness. For a heartbeat, he tries—

(—and there is heartbreak in the making, one of swords and confident grins—)

—and fails.

When Cloud reaches the light and the voice dissipates, there is a pang somewhere inside.

(It's only later, when he remembers with a jolt (of _Zack!_ and heroes and not being enough, of falling and crashing and somehow surviving, of when his tears and _his_ blood mixed together) who that voice is that he realizes the loss.

He nearly left behind his savior, the reason he is still alive, the debt he owed.

And that is almost too much to bear.)

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	4. Overlapping Negatives

**Title:** Overlapping Negatives

**Characters: **Aerith, Aerith/Zack, slight Aerith/Cloud

**Setting:** When Cloud falls through the roof of the church.

**A/N:** I'm an avid Zerith fan. Therefore, this had to be put in.

**Summary:** _For the span of a gasp, she is the closest she has been to Zack in years._

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It crashes through her roof, a small bullet in her heart, and she is surprised when she hears a small groan.

It can't be. It's so alike but it just can't be.

Approaching the figure, Aerith nearly gasps when she sees the man lying sprawled on her flowers.

(It can be.)

Maybe, she doesn't dare look past the uniform, it is him. She stares at the clothes she used to know so well, at the sword that she has almost memorized the shape of, and still doesn't look at the face. For the moment, she still has a flare of hope.

Maybe Zack has finally returned to her. Maybe.

(She can almost see his teasing grin, his bright eyes, his gentle hands. She can almost see it and aches with remembrance and loss.)

Her eyes drift up, a sea of gold where black should be, and it all crashes. The spikes are too fluffy, the body too lean, and he seems shorter anyways.

Collapsing. Aerith almost deflates.

It isn't him. It will _never_ be him.

Still, the man did fall through her ceiling like Zack did, almost t he exact same spot. He has the uniform, has the sword, and it is too similar for it to all be a coincidence.

Aerith believes in signs (in miracles, in reincarnations, in _soulmates_.) She takes what she can get. This could be the message she has been waiting for these last four years, the answer to her letters.

The boy stirs at her voice, his eyes just as bright as Zack's, and her breath hitches at the sight.

When he asks her for a price later, she thinks of Zack and of new beginnings. There used to be an angel in this church, but it was never her. The memories of him helped her last until now, but it won't last forever.

"What can you pay me with?"

He'd like this, she chuckles to herself. He'd like this very much and probably would tease her for doing this.

She asks anyways. "How about one date?"

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	5. Flickers

**Title:** Flickers

**Characters: **Cloud, mentions of Aerith and Zack

**Setting:** When Cloud falls through the roof of the church.

**Summary:** _He knows her, just as he knows this place, but he doesn't understand how._

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"Are you okay?"

Cloud stares at the girl in front of him, her pink dress and bright green eyes matching the flowers crushed under his feet.

There is something familiar about her, something that is there yet not. _Aerith_—she said that was her name.

Something stirred at that, a partially obscured thought, a faint life in the pond of his mind. It rustles as he tries to pull it out before stilling once more.

"Aerith," it sounds foreign and heavy on his tongue, a name he hasn't said in years and years but he knows it. He knows it.

(Or does he?)

She's still watching him, her brown hair slightly swaying in the wind. The church around him is crumbling slightly, pillars falling here and there and only a few pew left standing near the front. It still looks good, like it used to.

He doesn't know how he knows that.

She repeats her question and he almost replies with "Are you an angel?"

(For a moment, he thinks of pink ribbons and flower wagons, but he passes that off as nonsense. He has never made a wagon in his life.)

He responds with a logical yes instead.

When she asks him for a date, his mind stirs again. This situation seems reversed, almost. Something in him wants to smile at this.

Instead, he merely gives her the impression he'll think about it and ignores the part of his mind that snorts.

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End file.
